Kevin Campbell (footballer)
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Kevin Campbell, (born February 4 1970), is an English football player, he currently plays for West Bromwich Albion as a striker.
Campbell began his career as a trainee with Arsenal, but made his name during a loan spell at Leyton Orient in 1989 when he scored 9 goals in 16 games. After a poor start to the 1989/90 season he was again loaned out, this time to Leicester City. Campbell established himself in the Arsenal team at the start of the 1990/91 season, over the following five seasons with the club he won the league, the FA Cup, the League Cup, and the Cup Winners' Cup.
In the summer of 1995 Campbell was sold to Nottingham Forest for £3m, where he spent three seasons. He was part of the team that was relegated in 1997, but his 23 goals the following season helped the side to return to the top flight at their first attempt. However, Campbell left Forest at the end of that season to join Turkish side Trabzonspor. His time in Trabzon was brief; he left the club after only 7 months after a racist incident involving the president of Trabzonspor, who called him a "discoloured cannibal". He was very popular during his time at the club with the fans. To show solidarity with him when he asked to leave following this incident, the two club captains, Ogun Temizkanoglu and Abdullah Ercan were with him during his press conference in which he stated his reasons for leaving.
Everton, who were battling against relegation from the Premier League, signed Campbell on loan in March 1999. His impact on the side was immediate as he scored 9 goals in 8 games, making him Everton's top goalscorer that season despite spending barely a month with the club. His tally of 6 goals in his first 3 games earned him the April player of the month, he was the first on-loan player ever to win the award.
Campbell's move to Everton was made permanent in the summer of 1999 for a fee of £3m. He was to be Everton's leading goalscorer for both of the following two seasons with the club, scoring 12 goals and 9 goals respectively. After scoring only 4 goals during the 2001/02 campaign, he was once again the club's top goalscorer the following year when he scored 10 times. This would prove to be Campbell's final season a first-choice for Everton as he struggled to battle both injuries and the emergence of a number of strikers, in particular Wayne Rooney. Campbell left Everton in January 2005 to join West Bromwich Albion, who were bottom of the Premiership, on a free transfer. He was appointed as the team's captain shortly after his arrival and he successfully led the club to Premiership survival (this was the first time that a club which had been bottom of the league on Christmas Day has survived relegation).
Campbell has earned 1 cap for the England U-21s and 4 for England 'B'.
Categories: 1970 births | English footballers | Arsenal F.C. players | West Bromwich Albion F.C. players
